To worry about this UC error

[Floflo2]

Hello everyone. I'm a single mum. I work 30 hours a week around the children. I do get a UC top up and I'm greatful for it. I don't know why or how it's happened. But my work has told them I've earned double what I have this month. Which is impossible even if i worked full time to make the figure they have said I've taken home.

So I've just had my statement and I won't be able to pay rent and survive this month without that money. I've messaged my journal and offered to send over pay slips. But I'm worried about this not being resolved.

Has anyone ever experienced this and what was the outcome.

Posted here as I know the traffic is good.

Hiya thank you for this good advice. I need to put £50 extra a month away for it. I have a Halifax account amd websavers. One has 1.5% interest. Is that what you mean?

I've budgeted and I think I just need to write down what I spend this month and in theory I should be able to save £300-£400 a month after everything from January when thr outgoings come down again.

I can do abit extra at work. For example if I go in for an extra shift I would usually get paid £86 but by the time universal credits take of 55p for every £1 its only going to be about £40. So its hard to do overtime that makes any difference. But I get that it's help not a way to get rich. I am willing to do extra to help myself a couple of times a month though.

Thank you. Yes it makes sense now. I've processed it and I've done some calculations now and will just budget abit better and plan. I dont think they told me in any of my appointments.

The work coaches that you see face to face often don't understand how things are calculated and variations to the norm such as in your case. It's always best to query things with case managers who generally have a much better understanding.

I've left a message for them so shall see but I know now anyway.

Not had any experience of UC but I am shocked that claimants aren’t made aware of this upfront at the start of their claim! My DH is on PIP which is paid 4 weekly so 13 payments per year & ESA fortnightly so 26 payments . So they are able to deal with variations on payments! I feel for the OP & others who only discover this when they receive no/reduced payments out of the blue ! Hope you can sort your budget so this isn’t too damaging to you OP!

@Hoardasauruskaren there's definitely no mention of this when you begin your claim and claiming can be complicated when claiming as a couple.

@Floflo2 I hope you get a satisfactory explanation.
We are in the same boat the UC award of zero was one thing but our council tax bill of 6month payments was hard to bear as our income hadn't gone up 100%in just under a month..two days out with the assessment period.

Esa deduction is just averaged out as will always be the same. PIP has no bearing on UC and is always the same amount. It;s not really comparable to the situation op faces.

It should be based on the amount you've earned in the period not the bank payments. I've borrowed £200 and I've just got to be savvy with shopping etc this month and aim to pay it back by march. Never ever borrowed from family and i feel abit irresponsible.

I think life is so hard financially for our generation. It seemed my parents generally were able to buy their homes etc.

The problem is, the way they know how much you have earned is via your payslips. They have no way of breaking it down to know how much was earned in the assessment period if it's different, and that would be a ridiculous amount of admin to put on a payroll department.

It would be better if they could have a choice between getting UC monthly or four weekly - but that would come with added complications too, for example when people change jobs, so there really isn't an easy fix to this.

The problem is, the only way they have of knowing what you earned is to look at your bank account. They can't go to every single employer and ask for a breakdown by day/time to see what millions of claimants have earned each month.

It's a pain, but at least you can plan for it know they you know about it.

Yes it's because you're 4 weekly payments.

So for example if your pay is £1000 a 4 week period you'll get 13 payments of £1000.

This will mean one month you'll get 2 payments so £2000.

For arguments sake say your UC is also £1000 a month - you'll get 11 payments of £1000. The 12th won't come because you've been paid twice.

So each month your income is £2000.

What would be best for you is to now work this out using your actual figures.

So 11 months of wage + UC and 1 month of wage + wage.

If your UC is higher than your wage you can split the difference over 11 months and put that aside each month for the 12th month.

If your wage is higher than UC you are quids in!

I've just realised this is going to be the case for me too as I get paid 4 weekly in my new job. Do they still pay childcare costs in the month you get no uc?!

This situation happened to me last year with UC because I got a backdated pay rise from April which after it had been taxed was over £400 less than what I usually receive, I had to have an advance which they take back monthly out of your UC

Childcare is paid as an element of UC and earnings reduce the whole award.so yes if earnings are high it could wipe out your childcare element too it would just depend on your award and earnings. It is easy to work out. For each additional pound you get paid because you have received two lots of earnings, your UC award reduces by a further 55p

I made a mistake a few years ago and put mixed two digits up on PAYE... Instead of £1246 it was £2146 for an employee on UC.

My employee called me and said there had been a mistake and her money had stopped.

I immediately updated PAYE, I called UC myself and HMRC and it was sorted within 6 hours.

They replied just to confirm what you guys all told me. I need to put £50 a month away from December and I'll be prepared next year. Thank you for your help. Its a pain in the bum but I will be ready for it next time.

I'm glad you are sorted for next time, they should absolutely warn people of this happening. If you knew it was coming you would have prepared for it! I only know because it happened to my dad a few years back and it was a pain to sort out.

No.

It is tricky. I had to have a compliance interview yesterday as my shiny new job overpaid me. They underpaid my next pay packet to balance it out but it now looks like I’ve not met my work requirements. They were quite nice though and moved me back into light touch. I have been working and the average would mean I met my work commitments.

I think the paying you for what you’ve earned during the period would be difficult though. Especially given the variety and vagaries of contracts. I have an annualised contract get paid for 30 hours a week normally do more. Every quarter there is a reckoning and any excess hours are paid. so I’d report that in January I worked an extra 16 hours for example, in Feb I worked 10 hours less as no work available, then in March I got paid the difference. For work I do weekly time sheets so I suppose they could be sent to UC but it’s masses of work to largely duplicate what HMRC are already doing.